Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. and partner companies have agreed to buy about 37 per cent of the Bakken pipeline project from Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. and Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P.

To provide a new route from North Dakota to refineries in Louisiana and Texas, Enbridge is teaming up with U.S. refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp. to buy a 49 % stake in two pipelines; the “Dakota Access Pipeline” and the “Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline”. The transaction is expected to close in the end of 2016.

When U.S. President Obama rejected TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline in 2015, the best hope for Canadian oil producers to gain further access to Gulf Coast refineries vanished. However, the Enbridge-deal will allow more Canadian crude and oilsands barrels to flow to those refineries.